Dr Fotis Begklis

Biography

I have developed a body of creative work making independent documentaries, interactive multimedia projects, non-fiction films and experimental video projects. In my work I am primarily interested in cinema’s ability to evoke poetry and memory and the power of film montage. My core specialisation is digital media prodcution and post-production, and I have been involved in various production roles. I have edited, colour-graded, sound designed, created motion graphics, animated and produced a wide range of films and multimedia projects. I also have substantial experience producing, shooting, researching and directing a wide range of short documentaries and non-fiction films. I have worked with many artists, corporate brands, musicians and local communities and collaborated on innovative educational, historical and artistic projects. I love working and collaborating with local communities and have worked with various underrepresented groups and voices.
My latest hybrid essay film 'Grand Tour - A film in debt(ed)', an account of essayistic film production as counter practice. The film was part of Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (2021) and Kalamata International Documentary Festival (2022). My recently completed poetic documentary 'Beach of Dreams' (2021) about dreaming and walking participated in the World Trails Film Festival (2022). I have also created work for innovative artistic projects such as Arts Council-funded projects ‘Night Visit’ and ‘The Frog Princess Punked’ by Sally Pomme Clayton (motion graphics, directing and live VJing); ‘The Three Snake Leaves’ by The Company of Storytellers; ‘War Correspondents’ by Helen Chadwick Group and ‘Persephone’ at ‘Yohji Making Waves’ for The Wapping Project. I love working with local communities and music projects and have worked with various underrepresented groups and voices and collaborated with local arts organizations such as Kinetika, T100 Thurrock, and Thames Festival Trust. My creative work and academic research constantly explore innovative ways of making films to tell engaging stories that are deeply rooted in people and explore social issues

Research interests:

My research interests concentrate on: practice-as-research in the field of filmmaking practice; film montage; accented cinema; socially engaged non-fiction, and new online media. My research explores the cracks and in-between spaces of non fiction filmmaking and online media as critical and creative media practices and the conditions for initiating change in social and political transnational contexts around the world. Through my practice I explore how, in the context of hybrid essayistic and non-fiction filmmaking, the montage of interwoven layers of images, sound, interactivity and networking connectivity can potentially expand the conventions of non fiction practice. I often work with collages of multiple disjunctive fragments, where linearity is constantly disrupted and suggests questions which enable new poetic and thinking threads that challenge limited narratives. I believe that the current theoretical frameworks of the traditional notion of films do not work as efficiently for new hybrid online modes, therefore further research and a new set of rules are needed to govern their usage, supported by new concepts and theoretical frameworks. My ambition is to explore new paradigms of film montage and filmmaking that go beyond the current linear forms, by exploiting the affordances of the latest web-based digital video technologies.

My research interests: Non-fiction and essayistic filmmaking, film montage theory and practice, micro-historical documentaries, media practice-as-research, accented cinema, poetic and experimental film production, online media, and interactive and online films and documentaries (iDocs).